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Abre los ojos (1997)
Keeps you breathless
Abre los ojos (Open your eyes), 1997, which most people might know better in its American remake Vanilla Sky (with Tom Cruise and Penélope Cruz) by Cameron Crowe. I'm glad I haven't seen the remake when I had the chance some years ago - my mother's been a huge fan of Tom though gladly her interest declined with his Scientology and Katie deliriums - cause it would have spoiled this very nice movie.
The story ? Handsome and rich guy César (Eduardo Noriega) leads an epicurean life of one-night stands until one of them, Nuria, wants - not just a little crave for chicken at 2 in the morning - no she really wants him for more than one night. Of course, our womanizer doesn't give a damn and while trying to escape from her at his party, he comes to meet the beautiful Sofia (Penélope Cruz) and.. obviously she turns the Don Juan into a lovestruck Prince Charming. It would have ended there and you had the classical New-York - ahem Madrid - based romantic comedy. You can stop here if you don't want to be spoiled.
But, here comes Nuria again. She offers him a lift in her car, and tired Don Juan accepts. He doesn't freak out when his driver swallows a bunch of pills and begin to talk about happiness. He does when she drives faster and faster. Caramba, we're out of the road. She dies. He lives. His handsome face looks more like the Elephant man's now. But it's not the worst. The flash forwards sequences of our protagonist show that he is now in an asylum, accused of murder.
I'm not saying more. Only that the movie is one of these thrillers that keep you breathless.
Noruwei no mori (2010)
Disappointing
Disappointing... Tran Anh Hung took off all the lightness and funny parts of the book (Reiko is so plain, guitar playing scene made cheesy), only to illustrate the angst of the characters, i.e, with looong shots of them yelling, drooling, crying over beautiful landscapes sceneries. And had I not read the book, the story would have seem to me like a classic cliché three-sided love with dull soppy moments (The amount of "I love you" scenes) . Plus, for once, Hung focused too much on the sexual aspect of the relationships, the scenes are indeed sensual, but it gets tiring after a while. Tran Anh Hung's hand immediately recognizable and what bothers me is that it seems to be exaggerated on purpose. "Let's make him cry with some flashbacks of her, and let's put long shots of waves crushing rocks to show the internal turmoil inside him, in case the yelling/drooling/unshaved look wasn't enough". Beautiful, subtle, yeah. Shallow, over-melodramatic, vapid and gloomy, hell yeah !